Wednesday, October 31, 2007

Oh Mill, Mill Mill...whatever shall we do with you?

I have around 90 pages of reading to do on Libertarianism for a presentation I am partaking in next week and I just haven't got a clue. That could be something to do with only just starting the reading though. I guess there is always tomorrow...

I've just come back up to Sheffield from a weekend at home. I had an AMAZING time with my lovely boyfriend Gary. We did lots of things together, like shopping and searching for presents and generally being the best. He bought me 'Tomb Raider Anniversary' for my PSP which made me feel chuffed as I wasn't expecting that at all. Which just goes to show how kind hearted and loving a boyfriend I have,he just knew :) I will have to make it up to him x1000000000000000000000000000000 trillion.

The good news is that 'Stiletto' is coming together and should be ready for publication by mid-November which is super exciting. I hope I'll be able to scan an issue in or hopefully at least show you the website. I'm sure I'll be able to take a picture of the front cover at least.

Exciting times ahead. Apart from essays/arranging interviews for radio packages,the neverending stream of stories to collect for 301...

Friday, October 26, 2007

Last night I went to see, what is in my opinion, a most brilliant film.

STARDUST is just such a beautiful film. Sure it's cheesy, it's a fantasy and heck, it might even be a little predictable in parts...but it sure is good. My favourite bit has to be where Robert De Niro (who plays Captain Shakespeare, the leader of this rough group of pirates on a flying ship) turns out to be a 'whoopsy' haha..and he lets go of his pretense and starts dancing around his quarters with a pink fan and ballroom dress! haha. It made my day. Hell, it made the movie.

Michelle Pfeiffer as Lamia, an evil witch obsessed with her looks was also brilliant, in my opinion. The chase for the star (played by Clare Danes) captures everyone's hearts. She is at once sought after by Lamia, Tristan (to give to his unrequited love to Victoria (played by Sienna Miller) and also a string of princes who wish to inherit their father's throne and be crowned King. . &yeah it's just a brilliant film. Go seee!

But today has really drained me of the will to live. My course is slowly killing me. Not only do I find the workload so much harder this year, but the people on my course are really beginning to piss me off as well. I'm not sure why, but they're all so...up themselves. Urk. They just don't know when to stop being twats.

So many ignorant, chauvinistic, bitchy people....making me wanna throw up. That and I've been really tired, has made me fed up.

Also, I found out that my NCTJ's are gonna be worth nothing at all unless we get the shorthand qualification (thank God I've got mine!) but now we have to do an NCTJ in News Writing, which comprises one part of the exam and in the other, we have to compile a portfolio of the 10 best news stories we have written over the period of our course and from work placements, to be marked by journalism staff here and later we can show it to potential employers, which I'm guessing will be looked upon highly when we come to getting a job. I hope. Heh.

Thank god for JNL301 is all I can say...I reckon some of my best stories will come from Foster's module. I can't see too many of the others being great. Maybe court reports...I can't think of much else I'd put in though. I'm sure by the end of the course there will be more examples though, that will look decent. Hmm. The only downside to all of this is that we have to pay £37 for the folder and another £37 for the actual exam. Once again - it is extortion to the highest limits and Foster said we should complain.Maybe, but it won't do us any good as we're leaving next year, but it will benefit other years I guess. *Sigh* I dunno. Work work work...

Monday, October 22, 2007

At last! The internet is back and working at the house. Or at least- it has been for a few days now. But I thought I'd update so as to let you know I'm not dead!

The past few days have been inextricably busy. I've been all over the place trying to edit articles for Stiletto and with my degree- workshops, lectures, I even went to a UV festival yesterday to try and get a story for JNL301 (me and my friend have been assigned Walkley) and to be fair...the area's pretty dead. But we can also cover Upperthorpe and all the way up to Hillsborough, which I think is pretty decent of Foster to extend our area like that.

But it's still a cause for concern! If we fail that module we can't graduate...oh the joy. Other than that, I've arranged an interview for my radio package (I have to get a minimum of two and a vox pop), so I'm going to interview this lady from the Batemoor and Jordanthorpe Safety Forum on Wednesday. I'm doing my radio piece on crime, so that makes sense. I get to use a marantz- I've never used one of those before, so that should be fun :) haha. We'll see how it goes I guess.

I've been trying to do my essay, but I just have so many damn things to do it's hard to think. Not only have I got to do work for Foster (including showing him last week's work now), I have to sub-edit these pieces of copy we got given in the workshop on Friday...and urgh. It's a bit depressing really. *Sigh* I'll cope!!

I went out to Corp last night. I almost didn't go as I was being lead to believe the people I was going with had backed out...but then they tell me about 11pm and I had to rush to get there then! Arrrggh. So I ended up getting a taxi down there on my own and meeting up with them(completely by surprise) just outside of a cash machine. I got into Corp, just before midnight and stayed until the end. It was a good night out, I danced and got drunk and just generally listened to some ace music. They played Tool :D and whilst I mainly stayed in the metal room, I did flick between the ebm room and the 80's cock rock room briefly which is always packed out. I enjoyed a bit of each. I might start going on a Saturday more often as I think it's a pretty decent night actually. Just it's rather expensive (£5 to get in) and not many people I know would go. But, if you just drink Carling out of a bottle all night it's actually pretty cheap (£1.50 isn't bad). Hmm.

Anyway, I didn't get to sleep until 5.30am and I didn't wake up until gone 11am this morning! eeeep. So I just chilled out in bed, edited some more articles (they're all done now, apart from some 'freshers articles' I'm waiting on to come through soon), which no one seems to be sending me! grrr. I read a chapter from the reader on Stamp Duty and the press and that's about it to be honest. I wrote up some notes too and tried to write some kind of notes/script for my radio project, but only the bones of the questions I need to ask on Wednesday.

Right, I best get off now. It's late and I should be asleep. I've got to get up early tomorrow and try to call this councillor to get a phone interview. As well as that, I need to cancel/question an order I made last night, I'm worried it won't transfer or will bill me. Something stupid like that. Anyway, I best get off.

Sunday, October 14, 2007

Today has been just another average day. I've done what feels like tonnes of reading over the past couple of days, enough for my liking anyhow.

I'm having to start my essay already because I've got so much work and a lot of deadlines coming up, so I can't afford to waste my time really. But, I still find time to come online and go on facebook and so forth. Anything to procrastinate I guess :]

I went to see 'This is England' yesterday at the union's cinema. It was really good, a highly thought provoking film and I recommend watching it for anyone who hasn't seen it. It's about a young boy in the 80's who after losing his dad in the Falklands war, befriends a skinhead with racist views...and he brainwashes him into their gang basically. It was great watching, comic, sad, and overall very moving. A mandatory film if ever there was one.

So, we received a letter at the house yesterday from Tiscali, announcing that they had received our direct debit and our order for the 'net should be processed pretty soon. I hope so for all our sakes! With the postal strikes, give or take a few days, it should be here by Thursday of next week. Which I can only hope and pray for as we've been waiting long enough in my opinion...and I hate having to go to the IC every day just to use a computer, surrounded by loads of people who could be prying in on what I'm doing. Arrrgh. The thought is scary.

Hmm, what else. I've been very experimental with red lentils lately...I made a red lentil salad with philly in pittas for my lunch today, it was awesome. &I should have enough left over for tomorrow, which I'm pleased about, as my culinary skills are not going to waste :] hehehe.

But anyway, back to my essay as there's quite a lot I can say about that. Whilst I haven't started it yet, I have done most of the reading and am therefore both fascinated and appalled by my topic of choice. I've decided to write about 'Does pornography harm women?' and my research has led me down many dark tunnels...and to be honest, I'm not sure I like what I'm finding. I've read about Linda Lovelace, Angel Kelly and other girls and young women who were products of violent sexual abuse and to be honest what at first seems acceptable in some contexts, i.e- that it's their freedom of speech to allow porn to be made and distributed, when it comes down to it, you realise is nothing more than glorified violence in the form of sexual desire. It's a really awful topic actually and quite upsetting, for me, as a young woman to read.

But still I chose to do it,so I can't complain too much. *Sigh*. Again...I am writing this when it is dark and I need to get back to the house. Maybe I'll write a little more in my next update.

Wednesday, October 10, 2007

Ok, so as promised here are what I think of the films I saw on Sunday.

CONTROL(15)

I saw this at FACT and was majorly impressed. I think any film that can take a biography like this and turn it into something so believable and so...real that you almost believe it is happening, is worth more than a watch in my opinion.Control is a film about the life and music of Joy Division and its troubled singer, Ian Curtis who killed himself over 27 years ago. The film charts their beginnings, from the humble naivety of Curtis, who married his wife Deborah too young, to the bands' tours around Europe and his subsequent double life and affair with Annik Honoré. The film is captivating and ultimately very dramatic. Infact, it's so realistic, I almost believed it was happening in present tense. From reading 'Touching from a Distance', I already knew a great deal about Curtis's life and the music and story behind Joy Division, but to see it played out in front of my eyes was something else entirely. A real treat and the must-see movie of the year, in my opinion.

HALLOWEEN

No words can suffice for just how bad this film is. But I will say this...the glaring inaccuracies, the awful clichés, the fact every male character seemed to have long hair, and the blatant killing of all and sundry made this film so predictable, it was boring. This remake has ruined my image of the original Halloween and Rob Zombie (it's director) really shouldn't have touched such a classic. I left the cinema feeling let down and I'm not sure I can forgive Zombie for exploiting and bastardising it to the point, where it has now become nothing more than a mockery of itself. Very disappointing. Why Carpenter gave him permission to mess with such a classic, I will never know. But there were enough Zombie stereotypes in there to make you know it was now his. Urgh.

Anyway I needed to vent that.

Now back to my life...

I'm back at Uni now, so I should be here for a good few weeks because of my heavy workloads and the fact I want to try and get it all out of the way as soon as possible. I'm not sure if I can, but I'm gonna try. I had my first workshop of the week earlier for broadcast and I think I did ok. The tutor said that my idea (I had to write up a 600 word proposal at the last minute, yesterday evening), was fine and that I should be able to get an interview with a victim of crime somewhere in Sheffield and ask them whether the Respect scheme is actually doing it's job properly or whether it's just complicating matters further. So I'm going to try and sort that out sometime this week. Other than that, I've just come straight here (in the IC again), to use the internet because I don't think the 'net at the house is working just yet. But soon....soon...

Right, that's it for this post I'm afraid. I need to walk back to the house and it's pitch black already, so want to walk back while there is still people around, rather than later on, when I'll be more scared of my surroundings.

Tuesday, October 09, 2007

Sorry I haven't updated this in a week now, but I've been pretty busy of late.

Main news: Last week was pretty shitty overall, as I was stressed and had to do a great deal of sorting out. We still have no internet at my house in Sheffield. So on Thursday I decided to take it upon myself to call Tiscali up and I ordered broadband for us, which should be here by next week I imagine. But what a nightmare! I had to keep on repeating myself because the Indian callworker couldn't seem to differentiate between 'a' and 'r'. But with any luck, the 'net will be all ours soon enough and we won't have to keep goin to the IC to check on our emails and all that bother.

Similarly, I found out on Thursday afternoon when I went to try and buy a reader for £15 (a collection of essential 'reading sources' that my lecturer/module leader for JNL315 -Free Speech and Censorship), wants us to buy so we can at least try and scrape a pass (we still will need to do other reading as well...*groan*). So I decided to try and get cash out of the machine- but to my horror, every bank wouldn't let me get any out. So in the end I had to go all the way to Alliance and Leicester in town, where I was told that my debit card is unauthorised and therefore invalid. They sent me out another one though, thankfully- so the next day once I had arrived home in Widnes, I made sure to activate it and then I could use it from there on in. Thankfully.

But the main news of my weekend is that I passed my driving test on Saturday- and I can now drive :D YAY. Which is an achievement as I've been trying for a while now. So I'm really proud that I managed it and can just go back to Uni now and relax for it IS DONE. Hehehe. So I passed second time, with 10 minors. Which to be honest, I thought I would get more, since the route is Runcorn and I'm not that great around there. But it doesn't matter, it's over with now. Woohoo.

I was going to tell you of how I went to the cinema yesterday and all about the films I saw 'Control' (amazing) and 'Halloween' (shite) but I've just found out I need to do a 600 word proposal that's in for tomorrow afternoon! Argh. So I'll tell you about them in my next update.

Tuesday, October 02, 2007

I have some good news.

I passed my NCTJ resit in local government! Wa-hey! Woo. I'm rather pleased now as I was pretty worried I wasn't gonna make it. But I did, yay. So now I have got all my NCTJ's under my belt! Yay yay yay.

Monday, October 01, 2007

I'm sat here writing an article about why girls get so offended by the word 'cunt'. Lovely :p it should be pretty interesting and I'll have loads to write for it, having already written nearly a page on the subject. Oh how productive I am at times.

Especially for a Sunday. I'm being unusually productive on what I normally deem as my day off. Hahaha.

My research mainly is to do with the history of the word and how it can affect people in different ways. I'm doing something on the way it is interpreted, how people react to it and I'm going to be using sources like Atonement (might have to watch it at some point no doubt...), The Vagina Monologues and I'm going to go and interview Julia of Gash, (the sex shop owner). So it should be rather insightful.

Last night I went to Pop Tarts. I had a good night out, but I just wish that I knew where I was going! They've completely revamped the union downstairs- so Fusion and Foundry is all crazily different. They've put a wall where there used to be a corridor and cordoned off another entrance, so you can't go so easily between the 60's and 70's room and the other 80's and 90's one. That bit is a tad confusing. Erm, what else? Well, they decided to make the fusion? I think it is, a bit bigger and now it feels a lot like the main room. So I suppose in that sense and in the respect of saving space, it has many advantages.

Today has been irrevocably dull, I won't lie. But I have made some progress in the respect of my story I'm working on. Also, I've sorted some stuff out with my bank.

I'm going back to my house in a bit, I'm going to make a wonderful roast dinner :) the likes of which you'll never taste anything so good. Vegebangers, broccolli and cauliflower, roast potatoes and veggie gravy. Yum yum.